MA-17 Flamethrower
}} The MA-17 Flamethrower is a special weapon available in PAYDAY 2, added in Update #184. Overview The MA-17 Flamethrower is essentially the Flamethrower Mk.1, but as a secondary and with much higher concealment and a slightly smaller magazine and ammo reserve. The MA-17 has most of the advantages and disadvantages of the Mk.1; however, its high concealability, capable of hitting with its barrel mod and a Concealment boost, gives it deadly compatibility with Low Blow and Sneaky Bastard. Whereas an Mk.1 user can just barely reach the 23 detection risk threshold of the Aced skills with a boosted Bernetti 9, Bronco .44 (modded with the Pocket Surprise Barrel and Slimline Body), or Gruber Kurz, also leaving the player with little long-range capability, an MA-17 user has much more flexibility regarding modding their weapon, even more so with Optical Illusions Aced. An MA-17 paired with Low Blow is an especially powerful force, with every highly-damaging fire tick now also having a 30% chance to be multiplied by the inflicted enemy's headshot multiplier, resulting in an insanely high DPS when facing most in-game combatants. Summary : * Very high rate of fire * Very large ammo pool * High ammo pickup * Very large magazine * Decent concealment * High threat * Burns stunned enemy units in place for several seconds while dealing very high damage * Can pass through Shields, and stuns Tasers and Cloakers * Flame range extends 10 metres in front of the player, allowing the fire to pass through multiple targets * Can be modified for even higher total ammo * Very effective at destroying glass and other destructible items : * Very low damage per shot * Limited modifications * No iron sights and can only provide a nominal "zoom" * Limited range * Very long reload * Fire particles have a tendency to obscure large areas from view while firing * Relatively expensive * Fire particles and lighting effects are relatively taxing on performance * DoT application relies on chance Compared to the Flamethrower Mk.1: * Same damage, fire rate, reload speed, accuracy/stability * Slightly smaller magazine and ammo reserve * Much higher base Concealment * Unlocks 3 levels later * Does not require DLC ownership to use * Larger mod pool * Is a secondary weapon rather than a primary weapon Tips * Disregard the base damage of the flamethrower. Their damage is done from their Damage over Time effect. This makes the Low Temperature Mixture mod the obvious choice. ** As continuous fire of resets the DoT (never reaching the 1s duration for the first tick of damage) using taps rather than continuous fire (like the OVE9000 Saw) can achieve a much better effect. * Accuracy and Stability are useless for the Flamethrower, so installing the corresponding boosts is a waste of a modification slot. * Because of the long reload of the weapon, cover is an important factor to consider while on the move. * The Flamethrower almost instantly destroys the armorplate on SWAT Turrets, allowing a team to destroy them quickly and easily. * Unlike conventional firearms, the Flamethrower has a maximum range. This can be gauged by firing on the practice targets at the Safe House. The flame will clear up to the second row without trouble but will not reach the third set of dummies. It'd be wise to keep this range value in mind as most of the time enemies will be firing at the player from a distance and will need to be approached in order to be burned. ** The hit boxes of the flames tend to go a couple feet further or shorter than the fire particles themselves would suggest when the user is moving. This is most noticeable in third person when a person abruptly switches between moving forward and backward. * When using the Flamethrower, always try to attack groups of enemies. Fire particles pass through enemies and have large hit boxes, so make the most of your ammo by pushing them through as many bodies as possible. * If the presence of Shields are to be expected, the Flamethrower is also a good option to consider over conventional "Shield-busters" such as sniper rifles, shotguns loaded with HE rounds/AP Slugs, or explosives. The Flamethrower has a much larger ammo capacity and reserve, thus will make much more efficient uses of Ammo bags, and can be utilized to great effect on nearly all enemy types. The downsides to this, however, are the burner's relatively limited range and uncomfortably slow (8.5 seconds) reloads. * The flamethrower is the best weapon for destroying lots of breakable objects like glass. On the Mallcrasher job it can be swept across the wine bottles and earphones to destroy them more consistently than even the Vulcan Minigun or an LMG does. A short tap of the trigger can break multiple glass panes around the center of the screen and the car is destroyed in a split second. * Because of the 8-second reload time, it can sometimes be effective to run next a Taser and let him shock you, as this will instantly reload the magazine. The basic or aced version of the Shockproof skill can negate most of the dangers associated with this method. * Consider taking a high-damage melee weapon along (the Shinsakuto Katana is ideal) as you can conserve ammo by finishing off burning MFRs by meleeing them. Combine with Bloodthirst Aced to reduce the long reload significantly. * The Flamethrower's high damage and large hit boxes make them highly effective at breaking Bulldozers' face plates; however, like most explosive weaponry, the Flamethrower lacks the ability to make use of headshot damage multipliers. This makes it rather ineffective against Bulldozers on its own despite its ability to freeze them in place while burning them. Instead of wasting a large amount of ammo and time slow-roasting the Bulldozer to death, it may be better to use the Flamethrower to torch the face plate and then swap to a secondary conventional firearm to finish the job. ** It should be noted that the Flamethrower's lack of headshot multipliers also carries over to the Body Expertise skill, so investing in the skill is unwise despite the fact that the Flamethrower is technically a "full-auto special weapon" as the skill demands. * The Javelin might be considered a useful projectile weapon for back-up. If used effectively it can make quick work of some of the tougher special enemies, such as the Cloaker and Taser, who might otherwise use up a lot of precious fuel bringing them down. A well-placed headshot with the Javelin after burning the face plate off of a Dozer will kill him in one hit as well. * An accurate rifle should be paired with the Flamethrower in case it is necessary to engage Snipers. * Pairing a primary shotgun like the IZHMA 12G with the Flamethrower (or, for the more masochistic, an OVE9000 Saw) puts the user at an extreme disadvantage in ranged engagements, but allows them to wreak havoc in close quarters or enclosed spaces by using the aced Overkill skill to increase the Flamethrower's already high DPS by 75% for 20 seconds, more than enough time to render a room or two completely devoid of life. * The Flamethrower's burn time, while short, allows it to synergize well with the Grinder perk deck, as the frequent damage ticks will quickly build up a fast regeneration rate with very little ammo usage, no matter how many targets you hit. * The Flamethrower also works well with the Sociopath perk deck, as the close quarters combat style enforced by its short range ensures that the user benefits from damage reduction and armor regeneration on kill, and the Flamethrower's tendency to soften up targets and leave them defenseless and burning makes it possible to easily make use of Clean Hit's health boost on melee kill even without much investment in melee skills. It makes somewhat of a waste of Showdown's panic ability, however, as most enemies susceptible to panic will likely already be preoccupied with being on fire unless a secondary weapon was used to trigger Showdown's effects. Available modifications Barrel= manufactured by , a company owned by (who also owns ), even though the attachment itself doesn't really resemble a typical bell-shaped nozzle used on rockets. *Despite not altering the shape and therefore capacity of the fuel tank, the Merlin Nozzle somehow reduces the MA-17's maximum ammo count.}} |-|Boost= |-|Gadget= |-|Magazine= Skins Common= MA-17-Flamethrower-Firefighter.png| +1 Damage |-|Epic= MA-17-Flamethrower-Immortal-Python.png| Trivia *The MA-17 Flamethrower is based on 's Not a Flamethrower, with the fuel canister moved to the left side of the foregrip, and a tactical rail in its original place. **The branding on the flamethrower being changed to "The Modestly Awesome Company", the update announcement post's title, "Definitely A Flamethrower", and the list of conditions in the post are all parodies of the Not a Flamethrower's marketing. ***The list of heists the MA-17 Flamethrower "may not be used in", all of them being stealth heists, refers to the weapon's exclusively loud nature and not literally being unable to bring the weapon into the heists. ***"Kill it with fire before it lays eggs!", seen on the announcement post, refers to a meme, as well as the weapon's resemblance to the weapons seen in the and similar media. *As with the Flamethrower Mk.1, the MA-17 isn't an actual "flamethrower", in that it does not technically "throw" flame around when fired. Rather, it is fueled by compressed gas that's ignited and shot out from the muzzle, making it a glorified blowtorch instead. *The MA-17 Flamethrower has the longest non-interruptible reload of any weapon in the entire series, at 8.5 seconds, only tied with the Flamethrower Mk.1. *The flamethrower's noise during operation is treated as common gunfire by the game engine, thus will result in alarm-raised prompt mentioning the former if the weapon breaks stealth. *The MA-17 Flamethrower is the first incendiary weapon available without the ownership of DLC, community membership, or the acquisition of skills. Gallery 20180720121213_1.jpg|Inventory preview of the MA-17. External Links *Update #184 announcement post Category:Secondary weapons (Payday 2) Category:Special weapons